Feds launch 30-day review of Shell’s Arctic drilling plan [View All]

Feds launch 30-day review of Shell’s Arctic drilling plan


Shell Oil Co.’s plans to drill up to six exploratory wells in the Chukchi Sea near Alaska advanced today, as federal regulators launched a 30-day review of the company’s Arctic drilling proposal.

In vetting Shell’s exploration plan, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will be conducting an environmental assessment of the proposed project — including an analysis of whether there a significant environmental impact is likely from the work. Later, the ocean energy bureau is tasked with deciding whether to approve the plan, require modifications or reject it wholesale.

If regulators sign off on the plan, it would mark a major hurdle cleared by Shell, which has never before won approval for a Chukchi Sea drilling blueprint. However, the ocean energy bureau separately approved Shell’s exploration plan for the neighboring Beaufort Sea in August.

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Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, cheered the development as “another step closer to offshore exploration in the Arctic next year.”

http://fuelfix.com/blog/2011/11/16/feds-launch-30-day-review-of-shells-arctic-drilling-plan/